Oh England my Lionheart

This isn't a poem, it's a song lyric but what is a song if not a poem set to music? And if it moves you, if it makes you feel - then who is to quibble over something that can touch a human soul and resonate within it.




I'm in your garden, fading fast in your arms.

The soldiers soften, the war is over.
The air raid shelters are blooming clover.
Flapping umbrellas fill the lanes--
My London Bridge in rain again.


Oh! England, my Lionheart!
Peter Pan steals the kids in Kensington Park.
You read me Shakespeare on the rolling Thames--
That old river poet that never, ever ends.
Our thumping hearts hold the ravens in,
And keep the tower from tumbling.

Oh! England, my Lionheart,
Oh! England, my Lionheart,
Oh! England, my Lionheart,

I don't want to go.
Oh! England, my Lionheart!
Dropped from my black Spitfire to my funeral barge.
Give me one kiss in apple-blossom.
Give me one wish, and I'd be wassailing
In the orchard, my English rose,
Or with my shepherd, who'll bring me home.

Oh! England, my Lionheart,
Oh! England, my Lionheart,
Oh! England, my Lionheart,
Oh! England, my Lionheart,
Oh! England, my Lionheart,

I don't want to go.


Kate Bush (1958 -    )